The role of Battle Mounts

During last weekend's territory reset, for the first time we had a large number of battle mounts in fights. Based on our observations and all the player feedback, we think that the battle mounts currently don't match our intended vision. The original vision were very powerful support units in larger group fights. However bringing the same mount in big numbers, should NOT scale your power significantly up. And also they are designed for big group fights and should not be that strong in small skirmishes.

Which leads us, to the two main problems with their current state in the game:
1) Contrary to the desired design, bringing multiple mounts to one battle, significantly boosts your fighting power. Which has the risk of devolving into a game of who brings the biggest number of battle mounts.
2) A group of battle mounts are highly mobile and safe, they can just dive into an enemy zerg or roam the open world to gank on their own. And even when caught of guard, they are still extremely powerful on their own against small groups.

Short Term improvement (the hot fix)

To bring the Battle Mounts back on track, on their original design, we will have to re-evaluate and rebalance them to achieve the desired impact on the game. We will tackle this battle mount balance in two steps:

In the short term, which means next patch, we will make adjustments to address the raw stand alone power of the mounts and their ability to chase down or gank enemies on their own.

This includes the following adjustments:

Remove the CC Immunity (they will still be immune to displacement effects, but can be stunned and silenced)

Reduce their walk speed

Making mounts immune to buffs from other players. (Empowering Beam on Battle Mounts is way too powerful)

Reduce the damage output of the Flame Basilisk

Bring mounts back to their original design (next content update)

For the next content update we want to fully reevaluate the mount design and will make bigger changes to their spells. To bring these mounts in line with their intended role: A strong support for big fights.

In general we will increase their AoE radius, increase duration of the effects, but reduce their impact on a single target. So, one mount can easily keep large numbers of the enemies debuffed / Dotted. This will allow one mount to still have a big impact in a large fight, but reduces it's impact in small skirmishes a lot. And since these effects don't stack, it will also reduce the incentive to bring multiple mounts to one fight drastically.

Additionally with this update we will also introduce on a new ballista mount, which will be a more affordable battle mount, which will help medium and smaller sized guilds to counter battle mounts of big guilds.

Note that the changes in the next patch will be a hotfix for now. The Battle mounts will get a bigger overhaul in the next content update. And some of the parameters might be changed again.

Well, I hope you balance the "but can be stunned and silenced"-part.
Otherwise I already see 1 silencer in each ZvZ to completely shut down the enemy lizard via non-stop silences and/or stuns.

Isn't this "In general we will increase their AoE radius, increase duration of the effects, but reduce their impact on a single target." something one can easily squeeze into next patch?
All you have to do is to adjust the numbers, no?
e.g. +50% the radius and thus increasing the AoE-area by like 112% (~double the current area), and reducing the damage to around 1/3rd or 1/4th of current (since it'll also be subject to AoE escalation due to bigger area and overall will only slightly lose dps compared to now)
There isn't any change in "mechanics" involved. Only changing some variables.

@Retroman Just rename it to "Domination", like you did with "Balance" staff from start.
If talk about it serious, replacing part of damage with non-stackable DOT effect, like you did with Wildfire and Daggers Pair long ago, may be a good solution.

@Retroman
Nice! Good changes!
How about increasing Field of View when on a battle mount?(zoom out more to view battlefield much better)
It will be very good buff and will help to use battle mounts as command units, roaming, observing and commanding. And it is necessary to fulfill their "long range fire" role.

make 2 passive skills:
1- if there is another battlemount in a radius of XXX meters you get -20% att/deff buff on your battlemount ( making useless bringing more battlemounts)
2- In presence of allies around your battlemount you get +% att/deff/whatever bonus ( making it useless for small scale pvp)

Only caution I have is the way Albion's world is setup(especially with raiding mages/roaming battles) I think reducing the speed too much could kill them entirely. I think having them take stun/cc effects and reducing speed is a bit excessive for their price. I would suggest one or the other.

Only caution I have is the way Albion's world is setup(especially with raiding mages/roaming battles) I think reducing the speed too much could kill them entirely. I think having them take stun/cc effects and reducing speed is a bit excessive for their price. I would suggest one or the other.

Easy fix for that one: Gallop mode.
either stays active while chasing or not (either way, inactive when getting chased)

Reducing walk speed AND being able to be stunned and silenced?? When you're losing a zvz with battlemounts , they have no way to get away. Choose one or the other because being able to be cc stunned or silenced by an army of demon helms are too strong.

Reducing walk speed AND being able to be stunned and silenced?? When you're losing a zvz with battlemounts , they have no way to get away. Choose one or the other because being able to be cc stunned or silenced by an army of demon helms are too strong.

Don''t lose...? Seriously it adds an actual risk to misjudging the battlefield and having poor leadership.